Character Arcs, Flaws, & Lies Don't Need to Be Confusing (Writing Advice)

Learn how to write Character Flaws, Lies, and Arcs--and avoid much of the confusion surrounding them. Examples from Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Terminator, The Godfather, and more!

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The Anatomy of Story REVIEW:

Save the Cat Writes a Novel REVIEW:
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[WriterBrandonMcNulty]

Some of you will be thrilled to hear that for the past few months, I’ve been writing a book on the subject of storytelling. I’m hoping to release it later this year, and one chapter deals with Story Structure. Basically my goal for that chapter is to explain how Plot Structure and Character Arcs work together to create meaning, and I’m trying to explain it in the simplest way possible.
With that in mind, don’t hesitate to give me feedback on what you’re still confused by or other concerns you might have about Character Arcs.

[SteveJubs]

Harry Potter’s arc: positive change
Michael Corleone’s arc: negative change
Indiana Jones’s ark: of the covenant

[Finn-RFD]

This pretty much wraps up a year of my personal research in less than 15 minutes -- absolutely brilliant!

[OratoryJamesIV]

I'll go to the best character arc I've ever watched: Prince Zuko.

The flaw: his myopic, singular focus of capturing the Avatar.

The lie: that his honor can be given back to him.

Succumbing to the lie: at the moment of truth, instead of listening to his wise uncle and his own heart, he gives in to his old desire to have his honor "restored" and helps Azula "kill" the Avatar

Overcoming the lie and flaw: he realizes through his own actions that he chose the wrong path, and through great trials and selfless acts of helping Aang, Sokka, and Katara, he renounces his old ways, earns the trust of the good guys, and helps them defeat his father once and for all.

[TheFlickTalkk]

Probably the best writing teacher out here!

[thomasmann]

I really love when a characters strength gets turned into a "flaw" (can we even say that?). one example would be Boromir, who I would argue it's not that his flaw is weakness or pride. Those don't trigger his downfall. It's actually his noble worry about his people and his desire to defend them that makes it so easy for the ring to corrupt him.

[DarinMcGrew]

In Zootopia, both protagonists follow significant arcs. Judy keeps her "make the world a better place" idealism, but learns that she has biases of her own, and starts approaching her goal of making the world a better place more realistically. Nick learns that he can be more than just a stereotypically shifty and untrustworthy fox, leaves his con jobs behind, and becomes the city's first fox police officer.

[ISFSProductions]

I like the character arc for Robert Pattinson's The Batman. He starts out believing the lie that he must represent vengeance in order to help Gotham. By the end, he realizes that what Gotham really needs is hope. Here's hoping they don't screw that trajectory up in the sequel.

[skid]

You should make a video on how to write a comic relief character, good versus bad.

Examples: Jar-Jar Binks from Star Wars (bad) vs. Rattrap from Beast Wars (good)

Or Charlie Frost from 2012 (bad) vs. Merry and Pippin from LotR (good)

Not sure where the brownies from Willow would stand, though

[jaycee]

Dude. It feels like every time I've come across a problem or doubt in my writing you post a video that helps me immensely with that problem.

[Thathumanoverthere]

Your ability to summarize and communicate concepts is unparalleled. I wish many people adopted this teaching structure

[JackKirbyFan]

Magnificent. You are an excellent teacher. You really should do this full time in a classroom. Seriously.

[MichaelJPartyka]

I think you oversimplified Luke's character arc in ROTJ. His way of being a Jedi, including force-chokes and making death threats, puts him a lot closer to the Sith than he'd like to believe. It's the fact that he straddles the line between light and dark that makes him susceptible to being turned to the Dark Side, which almost happens at the film's climax. It isn't until he once and for all time rejects following his father's path that he completes his rising character arc (which at that point had turned downward). Likewise, it was Luke's ability to fall so far and then reverse course that convinced Vader it was possible for him to finally reverse course, too. So I would say Luke's arc was hardly "flat".

BTW, if you are interested in reading a comic book series with a fantastic character arc, check out Rick Remender's 4-volume series SEVEN TO ETERNITY.

[d.j.mulcahy]

For a while, I have struggled at writing my story. Thanks to your channel and some friends, my characters and their flaws have become a lot more clear to me.

Keep up the good work

[thatsruffdog]

To me, this is the most informative and significant video on the channel.

I don’t consider myself a writer but I’m always intrigued by the craft of storytelling and knowing the process and structure of a good story.

[NewIdeicASMR]

One writing topic that does not tie into writing exactly is finding a good title. A video on it would be cool because there is no greater pain than creating an incredible story only to go "wait, what do I call this?"

[stellargalaxy]

This video was insanely useful for me as I am trying to write a story for the first time and I’ve never made a character before. So far my characters feel empty and fake and I think this idea of lies and flaws is exactly what I was missing 👍

[WriterBrandonMcNulty]

What's your favorite character's flaw and lie? Let us know!

[salmanmahmood]

Another example (I think) is Marty McFly’s flaw across the series that prevents him from turning down a challenge if his courage is questioned. However, in the end of the series he does overcome the flaw which ends up saving his life.

[rcbutler]

Thank you for this tremendous video. This is one of those watershed writing moments for me (where you all of a sudden see the process a bit clearer). I had never heard the lie/flaw dichotomy/overlap and it makes a ton of sense.